You are not what you do. You are not a failure if you fail. You are not a success if you succeed. You are a success if you live, if you love, if you bless.
Love,
the scribbler
Tea and Crumpets: Have a Ficlet
THE TEA
Base:
Fill an oversized mug halfway full of favorite milk. Boil enough water to top it off. Stir the two together in the mug until the base is piping hot, but not near to boiling.
Brew:
Add two tea bags of Maté Factor's Dark Roast. Allow to steep for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove tea bags before drinking.
THE CRUMPETS
Add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to a small bowl. Stir in 1 – 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil until all powder is thoroughly dissolved and the mixture is a dark, rich brown. Spread over favorite bread and toast as usual. Cut in small triangles before serving.
THE FICLET
Story Title: The Way to a Girl's Heart
Fandom: X-Men Movieverse
Summary: St. John Allerdyce discovers the way to his girl's heart quite by accident. A kyro ficlet.
Kitty eyed the spread suspiciously.
"Goodness, Kitty. I can cook!" St. John Allerdyce glared at his girlfriend as he brought his teapot over to the table.
She sniffed at him. She did. The girl who could down their enemies with a single taste of her infamous blueberry muffins. The girl who scared off bad guys with her special, cannot-ever-cook superpowers and kindly-intentioned sense of hospitality.
He shook his head and scowled, but he did not allow himself to be distracted from his role as proper host. St. John had learned to cook from an overworked hotel maid he'd met on arrival in America who didn't mind feeding him if he kept the house clean and maintained. It was sheer survival. She taught him her entire repertoire (ten dishes and three beverages) and each only once. If he didn't get it, he didn't eat and that was that.
"Tea." He poured into the perfect little teacup on its perfect little saucer that Storm had generously allowed him to use. Kitty could eat safely enough. It was a warm, rich brew: his favorite chicory blend with a pinch of ginger, a dash of cinnamon, and a hefty dose of rooibos he'd bought fresh at a local market, all of it steeped in milk.
Finally, Kitty showed a little appreciationg. "This looks good," she admitted.
"It should," he replied and filled her plate with a selection of different crumpets: a tiny cinnamon apple sandwich, strawberries spread on rye, a ginger snap, and three of her favorite shortbreads.
"Did you make these all yourself?" she asked, still half-cautious to go with her half-salivating.
He nodded, sat, and helped himself, but his attention was fixed on her taste-testing each item with a tiny nibble. Her eyebrows swung upward. "This is really good." She took a tiny sip of the tea and those eyebrows went even higher. "Where'd you learn to make this?"
St. John chuckled at her then.
Kitty went on enjoying the repast, stealing little looks at him out of the corner of her eye while he pretended not to notice. He may have been romantic enough to make and serve her an evening meal, but he wasn't yet to the point where he wanted to spill his heart to her or commit himself more than necessary.
Nevertheless, he nearly spilled his tea when a he felt a small hand make its way into his under the table then hold on tightly. He opened his mouth to say something, stared at Kitty, who was doing an admirable job of pretending there was nothing more interesting in the world than her teacup and the Monét painting on the wall above the table, then closed his mouth again.
He glanced down at his own plate, then back at Kitty. She caught his look from the corner of her eye, smiled shyly, then focused back in on her cup.
Without saying a word, St. John Allerdyce ran his thumb over the back of her hand and squeezed back.
#
Posted in Fandom, Journal
Tagged fandom: x-men movieverse, favorite things, recipe, tea time
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Introducing a Crazy Idea
So the idea of a piece of serial fiction has been bouncing around in this head for a while now, but I was always convinced I lacked the strength to discipline myself and convinced I lacked the commitment and the ability to write linear without going back to edit, and then, this quote rammed me upside the head and a good look at my profile full of serial fanfiction clinched the deal.
Source: shareasimage.com via Liana on Pinterest
Cover Test: Crossing the Barrier
So I was actually trying to design a cover for the collection, Gone Hunting, but I ended up with this: a newly branded, much more professional potential cover for "Crossing the Barrier."
I think it appeals more to a younger audience than I was going for, but considering the age of the protagonist, that might not be a bad thing.
Theme in Fiction: How do you take it?
My characters are beverage drinkers. From Clark Gabrin with his "fine decantation of valuable stimulants and nutrients" designed to taste like an Earl Grey to the national Vardin beverage, sluscheta; to Shelley Huntington's addiction to all things coffee, tea and coffee seems to show up all over in my fiction.
Myself, I am a bit of a tea connoisseur. The family cupboard has always been stuffed to the brim with assorted teas, mostly supplemental or Celestial Seasonings, and my father's pantry contained even more exotic varieties, including coffee alternatives, such as Roma and Pero. When I opened up shop in my own pantry, I included hefty doses of tea for both healing and flavor. An introduction to a local tea room owner led me to fall in love with rooibos as well. So, when my characters began showing personality through their choice of beverage, not only did it not really take me by surprise, but it made for a delightful round table of who likes what and what that says about them.
Posted in Fiction, Journal
Tagged aliette de bodard, favorite things, lithiumlaughter, mca hogarth, Snippet, storyworld: alliance, storyworld: vardin, tea time
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Quotation: The Stories They Tell Themselves
I put out a wonderment once at Vardin literature and its forms and heard this answer in the voice of Vaila out of Britak, Academy Historian:
We have histories, which are accurate and stories, which are true.
Posted in Fiction
Tagged storyworld: vardin
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Nerve-Wracked: On Kickstarter and Book Covers
I am seriously considering (drafting) a Kickstarter project to help pay to get digital (and printed) editions of Soul (Breath), Radiance (Radiant Lands), and Gone Hunting (Vardin) to be gorgeous, properly covered, and properly copywritten.
And then, I actually come up with a cover I think I like. But will my audience like it?
A Post-Fandom Writer
Excerpted from my answer in this post:
Focus on stories. Forget the writing; the writing will take care of itself. Focus on what inspires you. Read. Live through your character's eyes. Know what makes people tick. Know the stories you love and how to get from point a to point b with as many complications as you can throw on there. It's about stories, people.
Fuel selectively. If you fall in love with something (I'm looking at you angsty ships!), it will come out in your stories. Pay attention to the things that unleash your inner fangirl. Fangirl your own fiction. Make it yours. Explain it. Juggle it around until you're satisfied. Love AU (hereby go to original) but make their lousy, crazy canon nonlogic into real logic without changing anything from canon at all—if you can. Learn how to feed your own muse.
Never assume anything. Know your characters, the rules of your world, and a handful of outside factors to fling at them. The rest will be unpredictable—even to you, but inevitable.
Know the difference between voice and tone. Your voice is your writing. Your tone is your story. And for goodness sake, don't read out of tone when you're working. Keep the reading and the writing separate if you're tone-hopping.
No matter what you do in writing, what choice you make, it's fine. As long as you do it consistently.
Fires, Weird Updates, Etc.
You might have noticed I'm a Colorado gal; you might not have. If you're a praying body, please pray for me and my family. We're all in cities under extreme fire danger right now, and my sister wasn't even sure if she could safely go to work this morning.
Additionally, if you've seen weird updates appearing, I have a lot of linked accounts and couldn't figure out how to unlink them while I was overhauling my website, so I haven't caught everything to delete it.
Won't be making any new updates for a few days. Blessings, everybody. Hope you're well.
Defining the Creative Life
The act of creation is, ultimately, a personal thing. We may sweat and labor and share with others the experience borne out within ourselves, or we may share the final creation that others might enjoy the fruit of our labors, but in fine, we must ourselves first create and experience beforehand.
There was a tipping point (there usually is, you know), last week, when I realized that creation neither occurs in a vacuum nor on display, that the act itself is intimate and private because it occurs in the places and spaces within my own mind. The act of creation is so far removed from the act of sharing that creation that I should never have conflated the two.
